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Arts & Entertainment

TIME Mag's History of Hipsterdom


By

Jen Carlson

Published Jul 30, 2009

Modified Jul 30, 2009


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By

Jen Carlson

Published Jul 30, 2009

Modified Jul 30, 2009


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Hey hipsters, you're too disaffected to probably care, but: you've finally made it into the pages of TIME magazine! Or at least onto their internet home. They begin their brief history of the hipster by narrowing the group down to people who hate Coldplay, love silk-screened tees, and drink PBR. We cross-referenced this in our Urban Outfitters Hipster's Guide to the Galaxy handbook that doesn't exist because hipsters would never buy it, and it all seemed to check out.

They move on with history lessons and the genus and blah blah yawn when are they going to talk about you and your awesome PBR-drinking lifestyle? Here we go; the scene is present day Williamsburg:

The hip have been hit with a double whammy of economic reality (more are struggling to pay rent as parental support dries up) and population changes (the carefully gentrified neighborhood is gradually being infiltrated by squatters inhabiting Williamsburg's stalled building projects). Hipsterdom's largest natural habitat, it seems, is under threat.

The hipsters who will be the dead end of Western Civilization are the ones who add nothing new or original and simply recycle and reduce old trends into a meaningless meme. It's for that reason that when Williamsburg's hipster playland is in crisis, there aren't many who are concerned.

Mad Libs time! Give a hipster a ______ and he'll ______ for a day, teach a hipster to ______ and he'll ______ for a lifetime.

Tagged

brooklyn

hipsters

history

time

williamsburg


Jen Carlson

Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


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